


PAST

by unavoidablekoishi



Series: PAST/FUTURE [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Bullying, Childhood, Gen, Ingrained Misogyny, Memories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26254987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidablekoishi/pseuds/unavoidablekoishi
Summary: This little one’s name is Revali.
Series: PAST/FUTURE [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907407
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	1. 1

The sun blazes down upon a tiny village tucked away between the mountains- though the calming sunbeams stretch across the architecture, painting the wood a soft yellow, the temperature is still low. It’s a bright spring day. The kingdom is currently under the reign of King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule. All is well.

The hurried clicking of little talons on wood precedes the sight of a group of young fledgelings scampering across the village. They are the newest generation of the Rito. The slight breeze bristles through their baby feathers and their eyes are a curious bright blue, observing everything around them with childish intrigue. 

They all hop down the steps, one at a time, ready to start the day with a game. The nearby adults watch them with fond smiles as they pass by. They’re a funny little group full of all kinds of characters- from sweet little girls with their quick wit to rambunctious boys who flaunt their budding courage. Most of these boys will be the next generation of warriors who will protect the village and they’re all particularly eager about it. Rito Village is built on pride and the children are no exception.

Though, as the stomping of little talons pass by, there’s still a pair clicking softly, slowly down the steps. Accompanied by a small squeak, a tiny little fledgeling leaps from the bottom step and lands solidly on the wooden platform below. He looks proud of himself, despite the fact he’d seemingly not done very much.

This is because this particular Rito is a lot smaller than the other children. He’s tiny for his age and sticks out amongst his generation as a bit of a runt. Covered from the torso up with dull navy-blue feathers that barely shine under the light of the morning sun, he’s got a curious (though perhaps slightly oversized) little beak and bright green eyes that look ready to take on the world.

This little one’s name is Revali.

With little wings flailing wildly behind him, he rushes off to catch up with the other children who are already a floor below him, almost tripping straight over his own feet as he does so. His comically-sized eyebrows crease together as he pouts, disgruntled by how much hassle climbing down the stairs provides him.

Nonetheless, he perseveres. 

Soon enough, he manages to catch up with the group of children who are lingering by the front gate of the village. One of the warriors keeping guard perches nearby and watches them with a smile as they formulate today’s exciting plan. Revali manages to descend the final set of steps and hurries to squeeze himself into the group just in time to hear one little boy talking loudly.

“We’re gonna play warriors today, okay?”

His declaration is loud and without hesitation- however, this is met with several frowns.

“What? We don’t wanna play warriors today! We were gonna go and practice singing at Warbler’s Nest,” one little girl retorts, leaning in so close to the little boy that their beaks are almost touching. The harsh expression of disapproval is incredible on her little baby face.

The boy doesn’t seem to want to yield, though, as he replies, “We don’t wanna go there! It’s so boring! Why don’t you play something fun for once?”

“Singing  _ is  _ fun! It’s more fun that hittin’ each other with sticks!”

There’s a murmur of agreement from a few other girls, whilst a few boys begin to mutter in disapproval. The first boy and girl begin to bicker wildly, making it almost impossible to hear one another over each other’s voices. Revali watches quite plainly from the back of the group. He doesn’t mind what they play, so he’ll let this carry on until they come to a decision.

Eventually, the boy sighs, “Whatever!  _ We’re  _ gonna go and play warriors. You can go sing if you want,” he waves a little wing dismissively, beginning to walk off with a few boys following loyally behind him.

“Fine,” the girl decides, and turns away in the direction of Warbler’s Nest with a few other girls in tow. 

Revali watches as both groups split apart, looking between them before making a hurried decision to follow behind the group of boys. It appears they’re going to scour the woodland for sticks and other weapon-like objects and Revali is perfectly happy with this. 

He loves the idea of being a warrior. His father is a warrior and, no doubt his father before him was a warrior, but Revali hadn’t ever been able to meet him. Most of the children’s fathers were warriors too, though the men who hadn’t taken up that particular occupation were usually already committed to taking over their own family businesses.

Sure, he understands the importance of tradesmen and craftsmen but he’s far too smitten with the way of the warrior. The idea of becoming a fierce force of nature, protecting his home from any threat and being strong enough for the whole village to depend on him- that’s his dream. He can’t imagine anything better.

“Ugh... _you_ again?”

It takes Revali a moment to realise the rather bothered tone of voice was alluding to him and, when he looks up, he can see the other boys all staring at him with unpleasant expressions plastered on their faces. He tilts his head innocently, “Huh?”

“Why do you follow us around all the time? Go play with the girls!”

Revali’s frown is small, “I don’t wanna play with the girls! I wanna play warriors!”

The boy rolls his eyes, stepping through the long grass to approach the tiny Rito, “You’re no good at playing warriors! You’re way too slow to fight!”

“You’re not strong enough, Revali. Go sing with the girls. We don’t wanna play with you.”

Hearing that said outright causes Revali to stumble back a bit. The other kids seem to tower over him, making them just that much more intimidating to the little boy so, even though he desperately wants to argue, there’s no way he can fight back. Not when there were so many of them.

He reluctantly backs away, watching as the boys begin to play their game, laughing with one another and mimicking their favourite warriors in a marvelous display of merriment. Revali deeply wishes he could do that, too. For a moment, he wonders why they only seemed to have fun when he wasn’t there.

With a heavy sigh, he turns on his heel and begins to head off in the other direction in the hopes of being able to catch up with the girls. He’s not paying too much attention, though- he walks with his head down, staring at the details of the ground as he ponders the actions of the other boys until a voice jerks him out of his thoughts.

“Um...what are you doing?”

He perks up and realises he’s suddenly stood between the group of girls- they’re all taller than he is, which causes him to shrink back. Even the smallest girl of the group is noticeably bigger than he is and...in all honesty, it makes him feel a bit pathetic.

Revali doesn’t know what to say.

“Go play with the boys!”

He looks up at the girl with as much ferocity as he can muster but he somehow only manages to look ever shyer, “Um...they wouldn’t let me play. They told me to come sing with you…”

No sooner does the reason leave Revali’s beak does the girl roll her eyes dramatically, glancing at her friends as if silently wondering ‘just what was this kids problem?’ She eyes the little Rito with a flat expression, before reiterating, “You’re not allowed to come sing with us.”

Revali pouts, folding his arms in a huff, “Why? Boys can sing too, y’know!”

The girl leans forward and roughly pokes Revali right in the middle of the forehead- he wobbles backwards, rubbing at the sore spot as she says, “Yeah, we know they can.  _ You’re  _ just a bad singer!”

Revali looks appalled by this declaration but doesn’t quite know what to do about it. He looks between each girl and it’s a little scary when they’re all looming over him like that. In Revali’s mind, he knows he’s been taught by his father that they’re not as strong as boys and that, really, he should be looking after them but...he knew better than that. He’d never mention that to anyone else but girls had the capacity to be truly vicious. Why other people didn’t seem to think so was beyond him.

A taller girl from the back of the group clicks her tongue and sighs, sidling up next to Revali as she says, “C’mon, guys, maybe don’t say it like that. You don’t have to be upset about it, Revali. You’re just tone deaf. See, my daddy is tone deaf, too!”

Though she sounds like she’s speaking niceties, Revali feels remarkably humiliated by what she was implying. He didn’t know what tone deaf meant but, judging by the exasperation on their faces, it wasn’t a good thing.

“Oh,” is all he can say. 

The first girl seems to look like she’s had enough of this and she waves her wing in the hopes that he’ll finally clear off, “It’s fine, it’s fine. It just means you can’t sing with us, okay?”

Revali looks withered but he very quietly says, “Alright…” as he begins to slowly plod back in the direction of the village.


	2. 2

Once again, like every other day, the children of the village leave to play their games. Revali has come to notice that there isn’t always a divide between the girls and the boys. Sometimes they play peacefully together, whether it’s a game of tag or hide and seek and Revali watches them from the perch of his home.

He thinks he would be very good at hide and seek. He’s already got some great ideas of hiding places that he’s sure to use when he’s able to play.

But, for now, he would occupy his time with other things. That was okay. 

After all, he had a secret game that only he could play! Nobody else could join in- not even if they asked really nicely. 

Revali pulls himself away from the ledge that overlooks the rest of the village and turns back to the familiarity of his own nest. His father is out today, as he is most days, so he’s the only one here. 

He carefully steps around the enormous piles of weapons that his father had managed to procure, being mindful not to knock any of them over, and scampers over towards the small table and chair nestled in the corner. He huffs and puffs, attempting to pull himself up onto the chair and even further up onto the table so he’s able to reach the small book-lined set of shelves placed there.

He squints, outstretching his wing to feel across the books for the right one. It’s a small book tucked away amongst the others and barely visible. He plucks it out with detail and sits comfortably on the table, flicking through the pages.

This was his special book.

Nobody else could see this book- it was that special. He giggles to himself as he begins to read the latest entry in his most prized possession, scrawled crudely in charcoal.

_ Dear diary, _

_ today i, Revali, the bestest ever  _ ~~_ wor warrier _ ~~ _ warrior ever in all of  _ _~~hyrool~~ _ _ hyrule ever did an AMAZING thing  _

_ i wented to go fite some big and scary monsters!!! like a hinox! its a very very big monster with one eye! and it  _ ~~_ skwis skwashe _ ~~ _ it makes you into chuchu jelly if it stomps on you! it was hurtin lots of peeple so i went and i defeeted it!! i shot an arrow in its eye!! _

_ its cuz im the bestest ever fiter from the rito  _ ~~_ villaj _ ~~ _ village!!  _

It...was... _ perfect! _

This was exactly the kind of exploits a true warrior would write about! Of course, he didn’t just write about them. No, Revali loved to go out around the village and vanquish all these big, scary (and imaginary) foes so he could write about them in his diary. 

This was something nobody but him could do. Though he hopes, when he’s older, people will be able to read about all of his impressive feats and excursions. The village would be so proud of him, too! Just thinking about it makes his stomach bubble in delight.

He hops down from the table, eyes fixated on his little book, as he leaves his home and begins to plot his newest adventure.

Now...what would that be?

A Hinox was pretty big  _ and  _ pretty scary. He’d have to find something even bigger and even scarier to match up to that! But what was bigger or scarier than a Hinox? He frowns, deep in thought as he struggles to read and walk down the steps at the same time.

What about a Moblin? They were pretty big. They had such big, ugly noses and tongues. The thought makes Revali pull an unpleasant face.

Then...perhaps a Lizalfos? They weren’t all that big but they were fast! Taking down a super fast Lizalfos was  _ definitely  _ impressive. 

Revali’s brows remain knitted together as he descends to the floor below and stops there, little beak positively buried in his book. He’s really racking his brains for what to write about until, suddenly, he’s struck with the most marvelous of realisations.

A short time ago, his father had returned from an excursion out into the mountains. It had clearly been a long and arduous task but he’d had the most incredible tales to tell. There was one that had specifically stuck within Revali’s mind and that was the one about the Frost Talus.

Apparently it was an enormous monster made entirely of icy rock. It would rise out of the ground whenever approached and would hurl chunks of stone at anything that moved. The very thought of such a creature had set Revali’s imagination abuzz.  _ That  _ would be his latest exploit. 

Now, with no time to waste, Revali closes his book and begins to hurry down the stairs as fast as he could without tripping over his own feet.

First, he would have to retrieve his most trusty weapon. A stick of the most extraordinary caliber that had been craftily tucked away behind the set of steps that led up to the village. He’d been careful to hide it away from the other children, lest someone claim it for themselves. Especially those mean boys who would never play with him.

He’s delighted to find it still there in it’s rightful spot when he finally reaches the gates of the village. The normal guard is loitering off towards the bridge which gives him time to sneak over and procure it. He crouches down beside the set of steps and sticks a wing under there to grab the branch, face still twisted in thought as he does so.

Perfect. He now had his weapon.

He gets to his feet and testily swings it around. It was a good weight for him- it made for a perfect sword, though swords weren’t commonly used in Rito Village. That was fine though, that would simply make him the first real warrior to use one. The prospect of it makes him smile dreamily to himself as he clutches the little book in his other hand.

“What’re you doing?”

Revali jumps about a foot into the air with a tiny squawk, surprised to find three village boys right next to him. Where had they come from? Were they watching what he was doing? He certainly hopes not.

“Woah, where did you get that stick?” one of the boys gasps in awe at the branch he’s holding- and so he should. It’s an incredible find. Revali is really quite proud, as he swings it and responds, “In the woods! It’s my stick!”

The other boy scoffs, “Whaddya need a stick for? You can’t fight!”

Revali pouts, “I can! I’m gonna be a big, strong warrior!” He emphasises this by continuing to wave his stick around but, in doing so, he only serves to irritate the other boy further. 

That’s why, with a pretty thundery expression for a small child, he reaches out, snatches the stick from Revali and snaps it square over his knee, throwing the two pieces off into the grass.

The sudden, atrocious act makes Revali squeal in dismay and he ends up dropping his little book in the process. How could they do such a thing? That was his stick! He’d found that himself!

He sniffles, doing his best to not to tear up but he can’t help it. Hearing the other boy laugh was enough to make him wibble softly as he roughly rubs at his eyes with his wing. Stupid kids. Stupid stick. Stupid everything.

“Hey...what’s this?”

Revali is too busy wiping his eyes to see one boy pluck a little book out from the large tufts of grass and begin flicking through it. He doesn’t want to look at them right now- if they see he’s trying not to cry they’d laugh at him for sure.

It...doesn’t really help either way, considering they begin to laugh anyway. 

He chokes back as many tears as he can and pulls his wings away, only to be horrified by the sight of them flipping through his precious book. He squeaks, wings flailing as he hurriedly tries to grab the book from them. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had much of a growth spurt since the last time they’d decided to torment him, so they can easily hold it out of his reach.

“H-Hey! Give that back!”

“W-What even  _ is  _ this? Did you write this?”

Revali frowns, “Yes! It’s my special diary and  _ you  _ can’t read it!”

The boy looks at him incredulously, before giggling and tossing it right back into Revali’s face, “So? I don’t wanna read it! It’s so stupid!”

“No, it’s not!” Revali argues, hurrying to pick up his book and protect it from outsiders, “It’s cool! It’s all the stuff I’m doing as a warrior!”

“You’re  _ not  _ a warrior,” the boy spits, “You’re just makin’ stuff up that you didn’t do!” he turns back to his friends, where another boy snickers, “He actually wrote that himself? That’s  _ really  _ lame!”

The words really stab at Revali quite suddenly and he does his absolute best to not let it show but he only ends up dissolving into tiny sobs. It...wasn't lame, was it? He'd worked really hard on this diary, but now it felt like it was all for nothing. All the kids were just going to laugh at him. How humiliating.

However, the other boys don’t laugh this time around. They merely click their tongues with exasperation.

“Look, if you’re gonna cry, go do it somewhere else. We’re gonna play here.”

With no will to resist, Revali sadly trudges away, looking down at something he used to be so proud of. The tears in his eyes only blur the image of the front cover, and the title that reads ‘The Diary of Revali, the Rito Legend.” as the laughs of children slowly become distant.


End file.
